Finding Me
by EvannaMae
Summary: The war is over, and things should be getting better, but for Hermione Granger, life just keeps getting more complicated. After facing the darkest wizard known to the wizarding world, Hermione now faces a more personal fight. The fight to find herself. When long lost secrets are brought to light, will the Gryffindor Golden Girl be strong enough to face her past, present and future.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**.

"_You can't have children"_

Mary Granger stifled the sob that threatened to escape her. She felt numb and yet completely devastated. How could it be? Ever since she was a little girl all she had ever dreamed about was having a little baby that she could call her own.

Mary knew she had a wonderful life, she was ahead in her career, she had a beautiful home, and she had married the man of her dreams. But it was all hollow, deep inside she knew she wanted a family. She wanted to chase after a mischievous little lot who giggled and cooed at her. She wanted to soothe bruised knees and read bedtime stories and love her little one unconditionally.

Now, it was nothing more than a pipe dream.

"_You can't have children"_

Mary walked dazedly out of the hospital, viciously swiping at the errant tears that streamed down her flushed cheeks. She held tight to the large masculine hand encasing her own small feminine one.

Richard.

She knew her husband was just as devastated by this news as she was, they had been trying to conceive for the last 2 years, with no results, of course they now knew why. It was a cruel twist of fate, but Mary Granger was barren.

As the couple made their way out onto the hospital front lawn Richard pulled his still sobbing wife into his arms. "There is always adoption sweetheart, the child would be no less ours, we'd still love it as if it were our own."

Mary nodded her head knowing that he was right, regardless of whether a child had her DNA she would still love it as if she had carried it for 9 months.

"I know." She whispered her voice heavily laced with tears.

"Come on let's get home, tomorrow we can look into adoption proceedings" Richard said leading his wife toward their BMW.

The devastated couple were unaware of the brown eyes following them. At first glance the eyes seemed cold and calculating, and they were, but other emotions warred within the dark depths, compassion, regret and sorrow.

The owner of the eyes stood in the shadows, silent but watching, making no move, until finally they nodded their head and disappeared into thin air.

#

It had been a month since Mary had received the news that changed her life. She had slowly but surely come out of the deep dark recess of her grief, tempted by the idea of adoption.

True to his word Richard had started gathering information about the adoption process the next day. He had contacted their lawyer who had in turn pointed them in the right direction to contacting agencies, and it was going dare she say it…well.

She knew that the process had to be intense in order to make sure that the children were truly placed in the right care, but some things were just wholly intrusive, not to mention lengthy.

Mary knew that rationally there would be a delay whilst they did background checks and the likes but it had been over a week since they had heard anything from the agency, it was starting to make Mary edgy, she couldn't face it if they were denied.

A knock at the door had Mary breaking from her thoughts. Making her way towards the door, she was shocked to hear the cries of a baby coming from the other side of her front door. Surely they wouldn't just turn up on her doorstep with a child, would they? Her heart pounding Mary slowly opened the door, her heart clenching painfully upon realising that the person standing before her was a stranger, not the assigned social worker she was hoping for.

The woman before her remained quiet as each took the other in. Mary had to say that the young woman before her was quite beautiful, yet there was something about her that made Mary slightly uncomfortable. It was the crying infant that caused Mary to snap out of her perusal of the other woman.

"May I help you?" she asked softly, not wanting to scare the slightly skittish looking woman.

"I'd like to talk to you and your husband, is he in?" she asked rather straight forward.

Mary felt Richard at her back, obviously having heard their rather unexpected guest's question.

"What can we do for you Ms…?" He asked enquiring as to the woman's name.

"My name need not matter." She said abruptly. "I have something that you both want." She said nodding toward the now quiet infant in her arms.

Mary gasped in shock.

"I think you had better come in madam." Richard said, indicating for the woman to come inside.

The trio sat in silence for several moments until the strange woman began to speak.

"I understand this is a shock for you, but I have the best intentions at heart. This child needs a safe loving home."

"Safe from what?" Richard enquired.

"There are many things that you do not understand about this world. Your Legends and myths aren't all they're cracked up to be. This child is special, she needs love and a home. She'll never be found here, therefore she will be safe."

The couple nodded mutely.

"As much as I would love to accept, we're already in proceedings for adoption." Mary said, he eyes not once leaving the sleeping baby wrapped up in a pink blanket. She was inexplicably drawn to the bundle.

The woman nodded. "It has already been taken care off, as far as the adoption agency is concerned no one by the name of Granger has enquired about adopting."

"How?" Richard stated.

The woman shook her head.

"I'm afraid that there are just some things that I cannot tell you. However I have taken the liberty of contacting your lawyer who is under the impression that you have been successful in adopting a child. All the paper work has been sorted no questions asked." She said pulling a stack of papers out of her strange looking coat.

The Grangers sat there in silence as they took in this news. However unorthodox it was they had for all intents and purpose a child.

The woman stood slowly, the baby held close to her chest.

"Look after her." She said finally as she handed the baby to a dumbfounded Richard, who could only nod his head.

The woman made her way to the door only to be stopped by Mary Grangers voice, the woman turned around to observe the new family.

"What is her name?" Mary enquired, her eyes trained firmly on the sweet little baby's face, she couldn't have been any older than a few hours, it should have caused red flags to appear but it didn't.

"Hermione Elizabeth." The woman replied quietly, then she was gone.

**A.N: This is my first time writing I hope you like it, obviously this fic is AU, please let me know what you think. Evanna.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

_17 Years Later…_

Dead.

Her parents were dead.

After months of trying to find her parents in Australia and coming up empty they had found them, and she had been so excited, only to have her heart crushed.

They were dead.

Killed in a drink driving accident.

They had died in each other's arms the coroner report had said. It was the only bit of information that gave Hermione any semblance of comfort, they had gone together, just like they would have wanted.

It seemed fitting for them to go that way, Hermione had long ago realised that her parents were soul mates. They complemented each other beautifully, where her father had been outgoing and loud, her mother was quiet and reserved. Where her father loved to cook, her mother was decidedly less enthusiastic. They were wonderful, and Hermione felt as if she were the perfect blend of the two of them.

She sobbed again, as finally the realisation hit her that she was all alone. She had no family, her parents had been only children, her grandparents had long ago passed away, and Hermione knew that her mum was unable to have children. Her mother had told her from an early age that she was adopted, but it didn't make Hermione love them any less. It was just the kind of people they were, so kind and caring. They had so much love to give, and she had been the centre of their world.

But now they were gone, and she was alone, even amidst all of the Weasley's staring at her in concern.

"Hermione dear, did you hear me?" She vaguely heard Mrs Weasley's voice, but was having difficulty focusing on it. Each breath was getting harder to take, her limbs were getting heavier, and she ached…everywhere.

She wanted to sleep, to hide from the world, and maybe not even wake up, would that be too much to ask for?

"Hermione" Harry's voice pulled at her, sweet and loving Harry, her best friend, he understood what it was like to have no parents.

"Harry." She whispered on a sob. The messy black haired boy heard her as he quickly pulled her into his arms. Hermione instantly snuggled closer seeking his warmth, she was so cold. When had she gotten cold?

Hermione was aware of a small hand resting in her own, she knew it was Ginny. How she loved that girl, she'd take Hermione's secrets to her grave, she trusted the red haired girl with her life.

"I'm so sorry 'Mione." She whispered only for it to be drowned out by the sound of Ron.

"Oh please I don't even know why she's so upset, they weren't even her real parents." Ron called out making the room fall silent. Even the clingy Lavender detached herself from him.

Hermione wanted to hex him, how dare he say something so callous, she may not share their blood but they were her parents. They had raised her, loved her and helped her to be the woman she was today. And so what if they didn't have the same DNA, Hermione looked as if she did. She had Mary's slight frame and soft brown eyes, and she had Richard's plain brown hair.

Hermione was aware of Mrs Weasley berating her son for his comment, but Hermione could barely bring herself to care. Ron had been nothing but standoffish with her since she refuted his advances. It wasn't a crime to not be attracted to someone. Though he'd taken it as a major slap to the face, obviously he can't have liked her than much since he quickly went back to Lavender. Not that she cared.

Suddenly the room was quiet again and Hermione barely managed to fight off the descending darkness to see a red faced Ron covered in thick gloopy Snot.

Did she mention how much she loved Ginny?

It was her last thought before her body went into a seizure and Hermione's world went black.

#

Albus Dumbledore stood in the private hospital room of St Mungos peering at his sleeping ward.

Hermione Granger.

The girl was brave and loyal to a fault, a revered war heroine, a champion of the underdog, the brightest witch of her age and still she was just a child.

She had experienced more in her short 17 years of life than most seasoned wizards, and yet she still smiled, she was still polite and kind and she still put others before herself. She was a remarkable young woman, not that she saw it.

Hermione had been a key player in the downfall of Voldemort it was her intelligence and thirst for knowledge that enabled her to brew the potion needed to weaken Voldemort's entire army. It was she that realised that the dark mark allowed the despot to gain his energy from his followers, and proposed that in order to destroy Voldemort his source of energy needed to be compromised. It worked beautifully.

Albus was startled from his thoughts by the arrival of Healer Adams, a portly kind wizard entrusted to watch the Gryffindor Golden Girl.

"Headmaster it's nice to see you again, I only wish it were under better circumstance." Healer Adams said shaking hands with Albus.

"Likewise Gregory" Albus replied. "What can you tell me about her condition?"

Healer Adams sighed deeply. "I'm afraid it's a rather inconclusive prognosis, as her guardian I need to request your permission to do further tests."

Albus nodded.

"As you are aware since the end of the war procedure has changed for the initial assessments of patients." He paused.

"You are referring to the blood test specifically?" Albus asked.

Healer Adams nodded.

"Yes, since we are still finding witches and wizards, whether they be alive or dead, we needed a way of finding a way in which for family's to track lost members. So we came up with the blood links and DNA, they are a standard part of assessment now and we use them on all patients."

Albus nodded it was a good way of identifying patients, especially those who were unable to communicate or were unaware of who they were. He indicated for Healer Adams to continue.

"Well you see Headmaster, Miss Granger's blood work, didn't come up with anything. Not her blood status, health status, date of birth…anything. There seems to be no information linked to her. I asked other healers if they had come across anything similar assuming that there was a fault with the spell work, but no one has had a problem." The healer paused running his hand over his face as he looked pensively at the unconscious girl before him.

"I took the liberty of examining her blood closer." He swished his wand flicking it minutely at the end. Albus watched in fascination as an enlarged image of little red discs floated in front of him.

"This is a close up of Miss Granger's red blood cells, at first glance they look normal, however if you zoom closer still you will see there is an abnormality." Healer Adams enlarged the image for the headmaster who squinted his eyes at the image.

"I must say Gregory it looks like Miss Granger's blood cells are shimmering." Albus said gravely.

"It is Headmaster, it would seem that Miss Granger's blood has been compromised, as has her genetic make-up."

"Magic." Albus said resolutely.

Healer Adams nodded his head. "Yes sir, it would seem that Miss Granger has been compromised by magic, the trace would indicated that it has been on her for a long time, possibly since she was a baby."

"Remarkable." Albus hummed. "Can you remove the long standing magic in order to carry out the tests do you think Gregory?" Albus asked pensively.

"I can, I just needed your permission."

"Which you have dear boy. How soon can you do it?"

"Right now Headmaster." The healer replied approaching the sleeping girl with his wand. Starting at the centre of Hermione's chest Healer Adams waved his wand in an intricate pattern slowly moving outwards until finally Hermione's whole body was aglow with blue light. The light seemed to intensify until it filled the room before bursting into sparks.

"It would seem that the magic had no malicious intent." Albus mused aloud, noting the lack of black colouring associated with dark magic.

"Decidedly not Headmaster. Though the reason for the magic is interesting to see."

"Whatever do you mean?" Albus asked approaching the healer who was still stood by Hermione's bedside.

"It was seem that part of the spell work included a glamour." Healer Adams said in awe.

The headmaster gasped when he looked at the girl before him.

Impossible.

"Gregory I suggest you do the blood test now."

The healer nodded as he shakily carried out the test before gasping at the results.

"It has made a link?" Albus enquired.

Healer Adams nodded.

"And I assume it comes back registering to the missing person's database?"

The healer nodded again.

"Tell me what it says Gregory." Albus said imploringly.

"Zabini. She's baby girl Zabini."

**A/N: Please Review **


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